Saturday, January 29, 2011

Prince of Persia: The sands of Time

The past decade has been good for Disney, as the company has managed to reinvent (to a certain extent) itself in order to adapt to the fast changing entertainment industry. Films like Prince of Persia: Sands of time stand as a testament of how Disney has had to shed its lighthearted skin to a certain degree in order for their movies to appeal to an even broader audience.

What makes Prince of Persia even more interesting than Disney's past non-animated adventure genre attempts (like 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' series of films) though is the fact that the film is actually based on a video game, which classifies as mostly uncharted territory for the company. This is something that should make fans of the original quite skeptical about the film, but do not fret, Disney has yet again managed to impress...

Don't get me wrong, Prince of Persia is far from being groundbreaking, but it does work great as a proper Sunday night diversion, as it focus is definitely primarily on style than it is substance. And it's a structure that works well, as the film has some of the most impressive, fast-paced action sequences of recent memory, with more than a few 'Wow!' moments to keep audience members thoroughly entertained.

"And it's a structure that works well, as the film has some of the most impressive, fast-paced action sequences of recent memory..."

A well put together cast, with Jake Gyllenhaal at the lead does a good job in filling the huge stage of this epic-feeling fantasy adventure.Gyllenhaal's chemistry with female lead and love interest, Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans and Quantum Solace) is more funny and entertaining than it is moving, but this seems functional as it gives the movie a needed sense of light-heartedness. This fantasy world is also very well imagined, with bustling cities and desolate desert sets to balance out all the openness. It would seem as though a lot of time was taken to plan this fantasy world and it really shows.

One major flaw that the film does have is a noticable problem with pacing, as Director Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, Constant Gardener, Mona Lisa Smile) seems to rush along numerous scenes that could have contributed to a much more definite degree of emotional impact. This is probably a problem with adventure films in general, but for some reason this shortcoming felt really apperent here... The unnecessarily complicated plot doesn't help either, making it surpsringly hard to follow certain parts of the film.

Nevertheless, Prince of Persia is a very decent distraction for a Sunday night with family and friends, just be willing to invest some grey matter in the plot.